Great Birthday Bake-off

Bake-off

My best friend decided to have a “Great British Bake-off” themed birthday.  

My daughter and I have been watching the show on Netflix, and we got two books from the library, which we filled with post-it notes.

Meanwhile I had given myself another challenge, to make a gingerbread library.  Watching the show had given me inspiration for that as well.  I made fondant out of a half-bag of marshmallows my son had left over from camping.  After I figured out how much powdered sugar to add and to protect my cutting board with, I created a nice, pliable fondant that I could cut and shape to make windows (I figured out how to make it stick again after over-succeeding in making it less sticky, I just brushed it with water).

I was pleased with my marshmallow fondant, which gave me the confidence to try another recipe I saw on the show, macarons.  Macarons are little sandwich cookies made with meringue.  I got the recipe from “Macarons : authentic French cookie recipes from the MacarOn Café”  by Cecile Cannone.  All the cooking shows describe what makes a good macaron- it has to be light, domed, not sticky, with a defined “foot” around the edge.  Well, mine did not meet that standard.

 Paul Hollywood’s voice in my head, saying “It’s under-done and flat.”  Can I just say, I hate pastry bags?  I don’t like the bother of taking a bowl of sticky stuff and trying to get it to neatly get into a plastic bag.  I described how I was loading the bag and my daughter did an honest to goodness spit-take.  She has taken lessons in piping frosting from my friend (the birthday girl who has a cake business).

“Mom!  You’re supposed to leave room and twist the top of the bag shut!”

I did not.  Macaron dough burst up from the top of the bag and ran over my hands. My daughter has agreed to take over any pastry-bag related duties in the future.

My macarons looked like sugar cookies when they came out of the oven.

My daughter picked out two recipes, bread and dessert.  She made mustard and cheese bread.

Then my dear friend cancelled the party due to sickness. (Blog left as draft)

Then the party was rescheduled to today.  So this weekend I went into the fray once more.  Macarons round two!

I used a different recipe this time. I wondered if a shop that sold macarons for a living would want to make them look easy to make. How hard could they be? People on cooking shows kept making them as after-thought decorations. [VOICEOVER: It was not easy]

Having a step by step instruction with videos did help. I need to know things that some people who’ve been cooking for a while assume everyone knows, like what paddle to use in a food processor to mix dry ingredients, or how to fill a pasty bag. I found a step by step here, based on a recipe by Tasty here. They taste good, they are…untidy, as Mary Berry would say. I think buying them from a shop would be easier, even if the shop was miles away.

Recipes that I think I will try in the future- “Emergency Christmas cake”, almond horns, rouchers, and recipes that have only few steps or pieces of equipment. What recipe do you want to challenge yourself with?